Cyril A. Pearson

Cyril Arthur Pearson was born in Wookey, Somerset in 1866. After being educated at Winchester School he became a journalist.

In 1890 he founded Pearson's Weekly and ten years later went into newspapers with the Daily Express. It created an immediate impact as it was the first ever newspaper to carry news instead of advertisements on its front page. In 1916 Pearson sold the Daily Express to Max Aitken, the Conservative MP for Ashton-Under-Lyne.

Losing his own sight, Pearson founded the St Dunstan's Home for soldiers blinded in the First World War. Sir Cyril Pearson, who became president of the National Institution for the Blind, died in 1921.